Open de France tips and predictions
The Punter's Preview: In-form course specialist impossible to ignore at 64/165.00
Steve Rawlings: For now my only play is on the in-form course specialist - Jeff Winther.
Since missing the cut at the weather-affected British Masters, in his first start after winning in his homeland at the Danish Golf Championship in August, Winther has finished 23rd in the Irish Open and 15th in the BMW PGA Championship last week so he's been ticking over nicely.
Winther took a little while to get to grips with Paris National, missing the cut on debut in 2016 and finishing 31st in 2018 but he's shown a real aptitude for the layout in each of his last three visits, finishing eighth in 2022 and runner-up in both 2023 and 2024.
The aforementioned Chacarra, Patrick Reed, Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis have all won twice on the DP World Tour this season already and Winther looks nicely priced on the Betfair Exchange to join the club.
Back Jeff Winther
First Round Leader Picks: Back 70/171.00 Norris to get off to a flyer
Dave Tindall: While he hasn't been able to finish things off, Shaun Norris has enjoyed a burst of strong round one scoring in recent times.
In his last three events, the South African has started out with 67s at both the Irish Open and British Masters, finishing the opening lap in third and fourth place respectively.
Wind two starts back and he posted the FRL in a Sunshine Tour event back home.
Norris was also the early pacesetter in May's Catalunya Championship so that's two first-round leads in his last 12 outings.
It's his first start at Le Golf National but he's been going low early on a variety of courses so can repeat the feat here.
Norris begins his day from the 1st at 13:00.
Back Shaun Norris each-way for FRL
Long Odds Tips: British Masters champ can go well at a big price
Steve Rawlings: Although he pounced from a long way off the pace at the Belfry, having been seven off the lead and tied for 25th with 18 to play, Sheffield's Joe Dean was not winning out of turn when he claimed the British Masters at the end of last month.
The 32-year-old first came to the attention of golf fans when he finished runner-up in the Kenya Open in 2024 - just a short time after he'd been earning his living as a supermarket delivery driver - and it wasn't long before he proved that not to be a fluke.
After a fifth placed finish in the Soudal Open three months later, another month passed before he lost in a playoff at the KLM Open.
Dean recorded five more top five finishes in-between his extra time defeat at the KLM Open and his off-the-pace victory last month and he may well feel he should have notched another one here on debut two years ago.
Dean is an accurate driver off the back with a superb tee-to-green game, which is why he often plays well on tree-lined tracks, and it also explains why he led here after round one on the first occasion he played the course.
He was still coming to terms with life on Tour at that stage, so it was a bumpy ride that followed, adding rounds of 71, 66 and 73 to his opening 65. He finished the week in a tie for 18th.
He'd sat alongside the eventual winner, Dan Bradbury, in a tie for fourth, just three off the lead with 18 to play so it was a disappointing finish but he's a completely different player now he's had the taste of victory and I'm quite surprised to see him trading at a triple figure price.
Back Joe Dean
Course and current form stats
Course form pick: Tommy Fleetwood @ 8/19.00
He seemingly feels nothing but good vibes when he is at Le Golf National. Fleetwood starred here in the 2018 Ryder Cup winning four points from five available, having won the Open De France the year before. After a long absence he returned to the track for the 2024 Olympics where he finished second. No wonder he is the favourite this week.
Back Tommy Fleetwood
Presidents Cup tips and predictions
Presidents Cup Bet 1 - USA (-1) on Day 1 Handicap @ 7/52.40
Dave Tindall: The betting reflects the USA's historical dominance plus the fact that, on world rankings, they're streets ahead.
The USA are 1/71.14 to win again, with the Internationals 5/16.00 and The Tie 16/117.00.
There are various Outright Handicap markets available and USA -4 trades at 8/111.73 with International +4 available at 5/42.25. The Tie -4 is 9/110.00
Just using results from the last four contests on USA soil, the Americans would have covered that -4 handicap in three of them. Note that for the 2013 and 2009 editions, they used the old format in which 34 points were available. Now it's just 30.
2022 (Quail Hollow) - USA 17.5-12.5 International Team
2017 (Liberty National) - USA 19-11 International Team
2013 (Muirfield Village) - USA 18.5-15.5 International Team
2009 (Harding Park) - USA 19.5-14.5 International Team
With Ogilvy involved in the redesign, I have a sneaky feeling the Internationals may just be a little better than some expect although it's hard to get too excited about their chances.
My first bet features the Day 1 Handicap where, under US skipper Brandt Snedeker's instruction, the format will be fourballs.
The USA won this opening session (the only one on Thursday) 5-0 at Royal Montreal last time and 4-1 at Quail Hollow in 2022 when it was held as session two on Friday.
That makes sense. They have the better players and with each playing his own ball, that dominance will tend to shine through.
So the 7/52.40 for USA -1 definitely appeals. It would land with scorelines of 5-0, 4.5-0.5, 4-1 or 3.5-1.5.
Back USA (-1) on Day 1 Handicap
Presidents Cup Bet 2 - Xander Schauffele to be Top US Points Scorer @ 8/19.00
Dave Tindall: Here's how it's worked out in past Presidents Cups. Number of matches each played in brackets.
2024 - 4pts Patrick Cantlay (5), Collin Morikawa (5), Xander Schauffele (5)
2022 - 4pts Justin Thomas (5), Max Homa (4)
2019 - 3.5pts Justin Thomas (5)
2017 - 4.5pts Dustin Johnson (5)
Six of the seven played the maximum five matches so that's obviously a key factor.
The Xander Schauffele-Patrick Cantlay partnership is surely one Snedeker will lean on.
They have identical Presidents Cup records (10-4-0) but Schauffele has better numbers in the Ryder Cup after finishing joint-top scorer alongside Cam Young at Bethpage last year.
True, by his own lofty standards, the Californian didn't have the greatest season ever but he'll be hungry and the team format is one he absolutely relishes.
Scottie Scheffler's record in team play isn't strong enough to warrant a punt at 3/14.00 so the door is open a little.
Schauffele is the each-way pick (1/5, 3 Places) at 8/19.00.
Back Xander Schauffele to be Top US Points Scorer
Current form stats
The USA are strong favourites to win the Presidents Cup once again - Betfair Exchange customers making them no bigger than 1.251/4 to retain the crown.
And looking at the various form stats and categories below it is easy to see why.
In terms of which side has the best players the world ranking points to the US being by far the stronger side. Led by Scottie Scheffler, they have the top four players in the competition ranked by points accrued since May 1 and seven of the top 10.
Simply looking at the world ranking list, the best eight players are on the US team.
Whihever way you look at the rankings, while they are obviously all amazing golfers, the International side has the five weakest players in the competition.
Of course Europe has regularly made a laughing stock of the world rankings, overachieving with 'weaker' playing staff in the Ryder Cup but the International team have very little history of doing so.
The US also brings in this week's winner on the PGA Tour in the form of Jacob Bridgeman who won the Biltmore Championship.
It would be a major shock if the International side were able to pull off the win at Medinah, although plenty of their team have played the course, most recently at the 2019 BMW Championship.